ROSELLA MAY’S DENIM DISPLAY

Rosella May is a gender-neutral brand directed by Rosella May herself. The brand focuses on a balance of clean silhouettes and innovative textural fabrics.

Following her graduate collection, Rosella went on to win the British Council x Graduate Fashion Week International Residency award and was awarded a collaborative position with Indonesian brand Soe Jakarta. The outcome of this collaboration was shown in both Seoul and Jakarta fashion week.

Rosella says “it’s amazing to be showcasing in London. I worked for a different brand for a while, so it wasn’t as nice working under someone else’s name. Having my own thing is just really exciting because I’m finally doing what I want. It’s a long time coming, but I’m glad! It’s only taken a year and a half!”

“Part of the year and a half I was in Amsterdam, this time last year I was just about to move back. I was working for Calvin Klein. But yeah, I moved back and then started my own brand.”

The denim-based brand is inspired by mental health. “It’s sort of to commemorate the openness about talking about mental health and not making it into a bigger thing now. When you say mental health, it shouldn’t be something that’s negative, it should be something that people feel free to chat about. That’s why there’s all of the bright and bold colours, so you wouldn’t actually know what it’s about until you ask me and that’s the whole point and that starts the conversation” says Rosella.

The presentation showed a collection of denim items that ranged from classic dark denim jackets, to white denim playsuits, to pink and black splattered denim jeans. The boxy fits and bright colours make the collection wearable for any gender.

“The collaborative designer for some of the t-shirts that the guys are going to be wearing today has actually got schizo-effective disorder. A lot of people within the fashion industry suffers with mental health. Everybody suffers with it and it’s just something that needs to be spoken about more. And again, doing it in a positive way, in the fashion industry, where it hasn’t really been spoken about before, is a big thing.”

The models were taking polaroid pictures and drinking Edinburgh gin, whilst a room full of spectators enjoyed the presentation.